Robertsbridge Land Slip

Initial Works

On behalf of Keltbray Group, Seva were required to attend the site of a land slip at Robertsbridge in Kent where the railway embankment had slipped and placed the railway line in danger from becoming blocked.

After initially protecting the railway line from a further slip, ballast was placed at the toe of the embankment to protect the line. The client then implemented 24-hour monitoring and enabling work commenced immediately.

Working closely with the local neighbours Seva commenced the construction of a 750-meter temporary road surface and began setting up a compound that included welfare, a working platform and of course somewhere to cross the sheep.

The site of work proved a very difficult environment for access due its positioning at the end of a narrow lane and wet ground.

Working from the newly installed working plateau Seva commenced the enormous task of safely removing the slipped area as well as the critical places along the entire length of embankment.

The working plateau itself consisted of over 800 tonnes of imported fill which was compacted in layers to provide a suitable working platform for the long arm excavator to work from whilst profiling the embankment.

Due to further slips and potential failure sites these works are ongoing.

Successive works since install week 08.

A specialist abseiling company were employed to install a rabbit netting to the newly formed embankment profile, this included a hydro seeding installation to finish the embankment and provide future vegetative growth which would assist in the long-term natural drainage capabilities of the embankment.

Further to the initial works as described above Seva were further instructed to install crest drainage along the crest of the slipped embankment area. This entailed the formation of a 200m long trapezoidal ditch, the installation of a concrete blanket lining, 3 concrete headwalls and associated carrier pipes to suit the existing crest formation.

Seva were then instructed to install a new boundary fence to match the previous fence and within NWR standard, this consisted of 230m of chain-link fencing to the crest of the embankment.

Since the completion of the embankment stabilisation works and the main line railway has been successfully opened to line speed, on time, as planned.

All previously excavated spoil and imported fill which formed the working plateau have since been removed from site, this in turn required the further importation of 640 tonnes of sand to provide suitable re-instatement to the private field.

Once the reinstatement of the private field is completed all the herras fencing will be removed and the site extremities will be reverted to the compound lay down area and the temporary access road. 

On going discussions between NWR and Keltbray are progressing to decide on the finish to the residential access road that has been used to access the temporary access road.

Once a decision has been finalised and should Seva be instructed to perform this work then a further case study / progress report will follow.